American Bridge founder and Chairman David Brock released the following statement in response to Michael Cohen admitting he paid Stephanie Clifford, stage name Stormy Daniels, $130,000 to keep quiet about an affair she had with Trump. Brock reiterated his call for an investigation into the seemingly illegal payment:

“Like I said on Monday, there must be an investigation of these allegations, even more so now that Michael Cohen has essentially confessed. The last time something similar happened, John Edwards was indicted, and it’s not a stretch to say that this looks like the same thing.

“If Cohen cut a check that amounted to an illegal contribution, he and the President must be held accountable.”

This week Senator Marco Rubio claimed that he is working with Ivanka Trump on a paid family leave plan, something long overdue and desperately needed by American working families. However, early reporting indicates that the plan is actually just an ability to draw from Social Security and is based on policies touted by the Independent Women’s Forum, a right-wing interest group with ties to the Koch brothers.

“Senator Rubio and Ivanka Trump’s proposal for a so-called ‘budget-neutral’ family leave plan is not paid family leave at all, but rather a cut to Social Security that will particularly hurt low-income women,” said Dawn Huckelbridge, director of American Bridge’s Women’s Rights Initiative. “Women already receive less in earnings and Social Security benefits than men and are more likely to experience poverty, including in retirement. This is not a comprehensive fix for working families, but another hollow proposal that does not serve the women […]

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Politicians & Pundits

Dawn Huckelbridge, director of American Bridge’s Women’s Rights Initiative, released the following statement in response to the US Senate’s vote on a bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and threaten doctors with jail time:

“Once again GOP leaders used women’s lives for political pandering by scheduling a vote on an unconstitutional abortion ban that would criminalize doctors and make no exception for the health of the mother. These kinds of bans are unpopular, scientifically unsound, and dangerously out of touch with the American people. Americans on both sides of the aisle have made it clear that this is not something Congress should be prioritizing. These complex and intensely personal decisions should stay in the hands of women in consultation with their doctors, not politicians — and voters agree.”

Issues

Dawn Huckelbridge, director of American Bridge’s Women’s Rights Initiative, released the following statement in response to the Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Service announcing a new Division on Conscience and Religious Freedom:

“Donald Trump’s administration is handing out permission slips for hospitals and providers to deny individuals, including women and LGBT patients, access to a full range of health services including life saving emergency care. If there is any doubt about how morally repulsive, politically unpopular, and far reaching the consequences of this rule will be, crafting it in secret behind closed doors and without public input says all you need to know.”

Politicians & Pundits

American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates released the following statement after a leaked Trump Administration memo proved that Donald Trump intentionally abused his executive authority to undermine the American healthcare system and needlessly raised out-of-pocket healthcare costs in order to help persuade Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA):

“Donald Trump has been caught red-handed: he drove-up​ healthcare costs on American families in an attempt to end Obamacare,” said American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates. “Far from providing less expensive care to ‘everyone’ or fighting to reduce the economic burdens faced by the ‘forgotten men and women’ – as he promised – we now know that Donald Trump made the cost of healthcare soar for untold thousands on purpose. It is imperative that Congress and the HHS inspector general get to the bottom of this damning revelation immediately​.”

According to the Trump Administration’s own data, average premiums for benchmark silver plans on the health insurance marketplaces increased […]

Issues

Politicians & Pundits

Today, Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s chief economist confirmed that the empty promises Donald Trump and Republicans made about wasteful new tax cuts for corporations “trickling down” to the middle class in the form of higher salaries and wages are untrue, telling the Associated Press, “The bulk of the corporate tax cuts should accrue to people who hold stock in companies…Workers benefit much more from a cut in taxes on ordinary income. In other words, better to get a direct cut than a spillover from cuts to others.”

This comes as evidence mounts that, as Fortune 500 CEOs announced many times over even before the Republican tax plan was passed, and as history demonstrates, companies will use these tax cuts to pay their shareholders more – not to raise wages and salaries for workers.

“Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are struggling as they fight against the […]